Icelanders have little faith in their country’s Minister of Finance and Economy to handle the sale of the state-owned bank Íslandsbanki, survey has revealed. The survey company Market and Media Research interviewed 915 Icelanders last week and the results were announced by Fréttablaðið yesterday.
63% of Icelanders surveyed indicated that they did not trust themselves Bjarni Benediktsson to lead to the privatization of the bank, which was taken into national ownership following the financial crisis in the country in 2008. Distrust was even higher among those with lower incomes, with 76% of respondents earning less than ISK 400,000 each month to express concern.
Íslandsbanki’s sale was put on hold around the start of the international coronary virus in March 2020, but was revived last December and approved in a few days by Alþingi, Alþingi Íslendingar. The move has been met with doubts from opposition politicians, although according to Bjarni dismissed these concerns as party politics.
Íslandsbanki was one of three banks established under the government after the Icelandic financial crisis in 2008. Since then, only one of the three – Arion – has returned to private ownership.
Source: The Nordic Page